House Votes Tonight on Bill Ending Record Shutdown

The House of Representatives votes Wednesday evening, November 11, 2026, on the Senate-passed funding package that ends the 42-day federal government shutdown, the longest in American history. Passage sends the bill to President Donald Trump, who's said he'll sign it the same night.

The package funds most federal agencies through January 30, 2027, and carries full-year funding through September 30, 2027, for three areas: Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and the Legislative Branch. The Senate passed it 60-40 on Monday night, November 9, with eight Democrats joining Republicans. It doesn't extend the Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that expire December 31, 2026. Majority Leader John Thune has promised a separate Senate vote on the credits no later than the second week of December, with no guaranteed outcome.

The bill cleared its last procedural hurdle overnight. The House Rules Committee, chaired by Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, advanced the measure after a hearing that ran more than six hours, from Tuesday evening past 1:00 a.m. Wednesday. Every Republican on the panel voted yes. Every Democrat voted no.

Wednesday's session is the House's first since September 19, 2026, a gap of 53 days. Speaker Mike Johnson gave members 36 hours' notice to return to Washington. The chamber's margin is two votes if every Democrat opposes the bill, and the trip back ran through the shutdown's own damage. Representative Addison McDowell of North Carolina carpooled more than five hours with Foxx because the committee couldn't start without its chair in the room. She got there. The hearing started just before 7:00 p.m. Tuesday.

The shutdown began October 1, 2026, and it's left hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid through six weeks of missed and partial paychecks. Food aid for millions of families ran late. Air travel snarled as unpaid controllers called out, and the delays reached the members now flying back to vote. The package recalls agency employees who were terminated during the shutdown. It doesn't pay anyone tonight. Back pay and reopened offices follow the signature, agency by agency, over the days after.

One signature ends the shutdown. It doesn't end the argument. The stopgap runs out January 30, 2027, the health care credits expire December 31, 2026, and the December vote Thune promised carries no commitment from the House. Congress has roughly twelve weeks to finish the remaining spending bills or start this again.